Clean Up The `Filthy Five'

March 05, 1999

Air pollution from five old smog- and soot-belching power plants in Connecticut doubled between 1995 and 1997. These fountains of toxic irritants produce a majority of the state's nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from industrial sources. It's time that Gov. John G. Rowland and the legislature ordered them cleaned up.

The fossil-fuel plants -- nicknamed the ``Filthy Five'' by clean-air activists -- are located in Bridgeport, New Haven, Middletown, Norwalk and Montville. If these plants are made to comply with modern standards, air quality in the entire state would improve significantly.

That goal is worth pursuing.

The five plants are legally allowed to emit up to five times the amount of air pollution that would be allowed for the same facilities if they were built today. The 1977 loophole should be closed.

Officials at the Department of Environmental Protection note that recent state action will reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from all power plants. Although that's a step in the right direction, it doesn't go far enough because the old plants will still be emitting two to three times the amount of pollutants as newer plants.

Operators of the old plants say that forcing their facilities to meet new standards will likely result in their closing because newer plants would be far less expensive to run. Not necessarily. New and cleaner plants, built in a deregulated climate, will use high-priced natural gas as a fuel, making the old plants, which use coal or oil, cheaper to operate. Furthermore, plants -- old and new -- won't be generating electricity just for the Connecticut market because under restructuring, electricity will be sold nationwide. It's likely that old plants will continue to operate along with the new.

Proposed legislation would authorize bonding to retrofit the five dirtiest plants. But tough, so-called new-source standards for emissions would not be required. That should be changed. The state should help the utilities -- United Illuminating owns two of the plants and Northeast Utilities the other three -- with the cleanup cost. The old fire-breathing dragons should be forced to meet tough clean-air standards.